Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A challenge I can really get into.

I love reading. I can't remember a time when I didn't know how to read. I started kindergarten knowing how to read. My mom gets credit for that not me.

My mom also introduced me to the public library. We visited the library weekly during the summer months. I can remember having my own library card at the age of 9. Boy, did I feel proud and grown-up! I used my card to check out huge stacks (8-10!) of real chapter books. Just for me. I devoured those books in a week.

I always earned the personal pan pizzas offered as incentive for my school's Book It! program. Do they still have that program, I wonder? I loved eating that pizza. I felt so special to have my own pizza that I didn't have to share.

I also read enough to earn all the prizes for the library's summer reading program but I was usually too bashful to claim more than a couple of them. (Julia, I know you find it hard to believe but I was not always the "assertive" girl I am today.)

Given my love of reading, when I read about this reading challenge at Callapidder Days I got very excited. I plan to participate and have been thinking about my list all afternoon. I've also realized something. I'm in a reading rut. I read non-fiction. Mainly parenting, mothering or marriage books. I've gotten a lot of great ideas and learned a lot from those books but I think I need to branch out a little.

I wonder if you can help me out of my rut. Do you know of any great Classic fiction novel I should read? What about biographies? Histories? I'll even take non-fiction suggestions. Also suggestions for reading with my boys. Just leave a comment with your recommendations. I'll be very grateful.

4 comments:

mer@lifeat7000feet said...

Hi Stephanie...

I LOVE books and reading and the library too! My 5-year-old recently got her own library card and thinks she is so big that she can check out her own books just like her big brother and sister.

And yes, they still have Book It!, at least they do at my kids' school. My kids earn a pizza each month and always enjoy eating it and not having to share.

I'm going over to check out the reading challenge, but my suggestion for you is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I don't usually read Christian fiction, but I've heard so much about it from sooooo many people, that I picked it up this summer and couldn't put it down. It was FANTASTIC! And I highly recommend it! Peace Like a River by Leif Enger is my all-time favorite book though. It's not classified as Christian fiction, but it's a beautiful story and the writing is superb!

Unknown said...

I always get great suggestions from reading other people's lists, so if you wait a couple of days after people start posting and read their lists you'll probably get some ideas.

I recently read Kite Runner and it totally lives up to the hype. I've also been reading a little of Jane Austen lately, from a classics perspective. I also read a lot of non-fiction and although I enjoy it a lot, I find that I love the reading experience so much more when I'm reading fiction.

Tad and Monica said...

I get enough serious reading with school so in free time I really love brainless stuff....Gilbert Morris, Tracie Peterson (sp?), Dee Henderson....but it you want some stuff on Latin American history, get back to me. :)

Stephanie Kay said...

Monica, would that Latin American history stuff be in Spanish or English? As I recall, I barely made it through the Spanish lab you ran...could of been cause I was too busy passing notes to Joel at the time. =) =)

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